Washington Digital Learning Landscape
| State virtual school? | NO |
| Multi-district fully online schools? | YES |
| Online learning requirement for graduation? | NO |
| State approval process for online providers? | YES |
| State approval process for online courses? | NO |
Washington offers a broad range of online options for students. Online programs are operated by a mix of districts, private providers, and consortia, some of which offer both part- and full-time online options. There is no state virtual school.
During the 2020-21 SY, 55,010 students took at least one online course, totalling approximately 230,700 course enrollments. There were 19,862 students enrolled in at least one online course outside their resident district, up from 14,607 students in SY 2019-20 (per the Online Learning Annual Report to the Legislature). Multi-district full-time schools enrolled 12,469 students during the 2021-22.
There are 25 approved course providers that have met state learning requirements as of December 2022. Districts may contract with any of these providers for online courses based on state legislation (WAC 392-121-188). The OSPI also offers a part-time online option through its course catalog.
If there are no online learning options within the student’s resident school district, a student may request a “Choice Transfer” out of their resident school district and into another district’s OSPI-approved multidistrict online school program for full-time enrollment, per the Choice law (RCW 28A.225.220). Part-time enrollments in multi-district online school programs are facilitated by inter-local agreements or contracts between the resident and serving district.
As of October 2022, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and its Learning Alternatives Department list 254 approved online school programs. Online programs may serve students within or outside their districts. Courses in approved schools may not be entirely online and may have other requirements including in-person or site-based components.
Some of the larger district programs include:
Sammamish River Valley Online School offered by the Lake Washington School District.
Spokane School District’s SV Academy serving students in grades K-12 with full-time, supplemental and blended learning options.
Tacoma Online is a K-12 school of the Tacoma Public School District offering personalized online content through district online teachers.
New for the 2022-2023 school year, Kent School District (KSD) offers an online school for students in grades 6-12.
The Alternative Learning Department approves all online school programs for the state, whether they be single-district online school programs serving only resident students or multi-district online school programs serving students statewide. Although there are no private full-time online schools approved by the ALD, many districts partner with private and approved online course providers to operate their own approved full-time online school programs.
Washington gathers one of the more comprehensive statewide data sets on online learning in the U. S. and publishes the Online Learning Annual Report to the Legislature at the beginning of each year. The OSPI and ALD collect online learning data from three state-level sources, 1) the monthly Alternative Learning Experiences (ALE) enrollment report, 2) Comprehensive Education Data and Research System (CEDARS), and 3) the ALD’s online course catalog and registration system. Blended learning programs are not included in state reporting mechanisms, though there are numerous school and district initiatives.
State Policies
No major legislation impacting online and/or blended learning was passed January through August 2022.
Washington’s online learning policies are found in RCW28A.250 that created the ALD within the OSPI and developed initial approval and reporting requirements. Reporting standards requiring districts to designate online courses were included in RCW28A.250.040 (2009). Districts must have online learning board policies and must accept all online course credits that meet district graduation requirements and are earned from OPSI-approved providers. All online multi-district programs must be approved by the ALD, a process which includes review by a team of external reviewers. Single district and affiliate programs must register with the ALD.